43 comments:

Good eatin'! Owl burger w/ some Wise potato chips. Then Tandycakes for dessert.

Regarding your accent you mentioned yesterday. I had a roomate in college from Wilmington, De. His name was Richie Vintigni but everyone knew him as "Deleware." If I were to project your muted accent back 30 years, you sound like him.

I made a couple cocktails involving a liter of Coke. A friend saw me squeeze the air out by smashing the bottle before closing it and he goes, "DON'T DO THAT!" I go, "Why not?" And he goes, "Because that'll make it flat."

edutcher, like yourself, I'm a huge fan of the all Tastykake confections. Tandy's were good because they had peanut butter..got to get some protein when you're training for the decathalon[hitting 10 bars in 5 hours].

I grew up on Drakes in New England[loved Devil Dogs], but got introduced to Tasty when I went to school in Pa.

What I saw was a woman with binoculars and a man with a big camera on a tripod. I stopped to talk with them and they pointed out the owl. It took me a long, long time to see it, even with lots of help.

As for the second picture... did I ever say it was the same tree? Never assume!

edutcher, like yourself, I'm a huge fan of the all Tastykake confections. Tandy's were good because they had peanut butter..got to get some protein when you're training for the decathalon[hitting 10 bars in 5 hours].

I grew up on Drakes in New England[loved Devil Dogs], but got introduced to Tasty when I went to school in Pa.

Drake's were good, too, but the PB in things like TandyKakes gets stale or something and I just couldn't do it.

If you're old enough, you might have also gotten your hands on some of the Old London chips and stuff, which were right up there with Wise.

PS Looks like the showdown at the Portland Occupation ended with not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Synova:Is that a 10" Schmidt-Cassegrain or a Newtonian? With an instrument like that you really need to get deep into the countryside to get away from light pollution, especially a Newtonian which typically have effective apertures higher than f32.

Zhumell Dobsonian? Um... Newtonian it looks like. I was looking for a model number but don't see it handy.

The funny thing, other than the stupid clouds now that we've got it home, is that I live on a mountain in New Mexico. Albuquerque is close but on the other side of the mountain so there is very little in the way of light issues. The neighbors don't tend to leave lights on at night either. The feeling seems to be, if that's what a person wanted they should just live in town.

I remember living in the Bay Area and hardly being able to see the big dipper. Hale-Bopp was a sad, almost invisible, disappointment.

I had a lovely day visiting my alma mater with my older daughter. We were there to see a play but just having her company was far more enjoyable. We had lunch and walked around campus. The leaves must be at their peak, or just beyond, but they are still beautiful. As we left, a wedding was about to begin at the church on campus, and the happy couple was having their picture taken. A slightly melancholy, but beautiful day.

The funny thing, other than the stupid clouds now that we've got it home, is that I live on a mountain in New Mexico. Albuquerque is close but on the other side of the mountain so there is very little in the way of light issues.

The Blonde was thinking of moving us out to Albuquerque at one point, but we drove there from Flagstaff and she was put off by the way the highway is above the town and how we had to get down off it to look around the place (personally, I kind of liked the town).

If it's not too personal, in what direction are you in relation to the town and what do you like/dislike about living there? And how's the weather?

We drove down the Rio Grande valley as far as Socorro (in January) and thought it was very pretty.

We live in the East Mountains, which is what people call being on the East side of Sandia Crest. Albuquerque is on the West side, down in that rift valley. We don't have the cliffs that are so pretty. It's far greener over here, but it's still high desert and not green. Spring comes three weeks later here than in Albuquerque. The area along the rio grande is all pretty cottonwoods.

Do I like it?

I like Albuquerque as well as any town. It's actually really good for culture and especially food. I'd say it compares well to the Bay Area or Seattle for eating. It's also rather rough, or at least that's the feeling. I've met someone who wouldn't go into town unarmed. Granted, I figured he was being awfully silly about that. Not that I'd walk around after dark south of Central, myself.

If I didn't have the dogs and chickens I think that I'd like to live in town instead of out here, because we get snowed in a couple of times a year and the commute is 30 minutes. I'd go for the North East part, probably in one of the older neighborhoods of small houses. People tend to keep their yards tidy and there are a lot of houses for sale lately. Everyone I've met is wonderfully friendly.

I've tried to imagine where in the World I'd live if I could simply decide for myself where I wanted to go. It probably wouldn't be Albuquerque, but it's not something I've ever had to seriously decide. I think it's an impossible question.

One time on vacation, the wife and I stopped at an overlook of the Missouri River. It had a path leading out to a point, so we went down it. I grabbed her arm,"Watch out! There's a rattlesnake!" I exclaimed. "No it's not." she pooh poohed. Then it coiled up and started rattling.

I've been lucky enough to walk up and actually pet whitetail deer in the wild (twice). I watched my mother do the same thing once, maybe family pheromones. Hers as an eight pointer, which was pretty impressive in my eyes.

My Dad and Uncle (who weighs 350+ easy) were deer hunting once. Their stands were near each other. A mountain lion known to be in the area started roaring nearby. My Dad gets out of his stand and walks over to my uncle. "Do you have your pistol?" my uncle asks, my Dad almost always packs, more so than not. This one time he wasn't. Learning this, my uncle tosses his bow out of his stand, and then himself. Grabbing his bow, he starts running/jogging towards their truck. "Wait up Ronnie!" my Dad shouts! Uncle Ronnie looks over his shoulder and shouts "Eff you Miller!"-true story. Gotta love family.

Mrs Karl was getting some detailing done at the port bazaar, so I had some me time.

Against advice, I left the physically safe confines of the port and walked about town.

Within two blocks I was approached by a couple of kids who insisted on showing me the wildlife in the nearby park.

"Meester, meester - look - look. Owe!" I didn't see anything.Then they picked up rocks and threw them up into the trees. That's when I saw the owl fly off to a safer perch.They didn't seem too happy about the gratuity I gave them.

Instapundit links to a blog which calls for a Tea Party "revival" i.e. marches. I sense we're going to see blood in the streets if that happens 'cause one side is not happy seeing the other side have private meetings. See: Denver

We get a couple of good snowstorms a year, but we only get snowed in because we're in the mountains and there aren't enough snowplows. I'm told there used to be a time when the snow was deep in the fall, in the mountains, and stayed until spring, but in the 8 years we've been here the snow mostly melts off in a few days.

People grow crape myrtle in town, which seems like a warm climate shrub to me. I can't grow them. The elevation difference means three extra weeks at both ends of the growing season as well.

Crepe myrtles will grow in Zone 7, which includes Albuquercue, but ours once died down to the ground when it hit near zero in NoVa, as did the fig bush. In NM, you won't have our powdery mildew problems.